


drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart

by sevtacular



Category: Last Tango In Halifax
Genre: Alternate Ending, F/F, Morning After, Panic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-03-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:01:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23264383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevtacular/pseuds/sevtacular
Summary: Alternate ending for series 2 episode 6. Gillian wakes up with Caroline.
Relationships: Gillian Greenwood/Caroline McKenzie-Dawson
Comments: 18
Kudos: 73





	drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [daisydoctor13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/daisydoctor13/gifts).



> I blame me writing this fic on a very bad (read: the best) influence in my life.
> 
> Last Tango In Halifax becomes infinitely better when you sail the good ship Are We Cool, Vincent. Just saying.
> 
> Title is from Howl from Florence and the Machine.

Gillian stirs under the covers and in her semi-asleep state palms the breast under her hand before snuggling back into the chest of the person she’s in bed with. Sometimes, all Gillian wants is to feel safe in someone’s arms in a way she never did with her husband. It’s only when her bed mate releases a soft sigh and a hand is placed on Gillian’s hip that the farmer realises that it definitely isn’t Robbie she’s in bed with. He doesn’t have breasts like the one currently in Gillian’s palm, for one. Also, his hands are calloused, the one currently resting on her naked hip is the sort of smooth which could only be achieved from regular moisturising. Wait… her naked hip? Gillian forces herself to open her eyes and wake up some more. As her vision becomes more focused all she sees is thick blonde hair and a face softened in sleep. A face that looks so peaceful, so content, so unlike the stressed mania and barely-in-place mask of the person when they’re awake. She also sees a very naked shoulder covered in freckles and… teeth marks?

Gillian’s brain fully wakes up then as the penny (no, not penny, more like the entire bank of England’s worth of coinage) drops and she realises she’s in bed naked with Caroline. The exact Caroline who just yesterday afternoon became her step-sister. And Caroline, said new step-sister, is sporting the marks of evening activities which there is never any sort of innocent explanation for the morning after. Caroline herself seems to be having very pleasant dreams and is not at all bothered by the fact that Gillian is practically groping her in her sleep.

Gillian stays very still and tries to recollect just what happened at the wedding reception. Robbie dancing with Cheryl. Kate leaving Caroline for good. Caroline sitting with Gillian to put the world to rights over a bottle (or two… or three?) of the very nice wine served at the country hotel. Going for an evening walk (actually, evening stumble would be the more accurate way to describe it, Gillian thinks) in the grounds and giggling over how when they first looked around the place and booked the hotel thought they were a couple. How perhaps they assumed Gillian was ‘one of Caroline’s women’, whatever that means. Considering Caroline absolutely does not have a track record of women. Though, if she did, Gillian would probably be one. Maybe. If that’s something they were both interested in.

Then silence and staring at one another for an indefinite amount of time until suddenly Gillian was very much aware of just how soft Caroline’s lips are and just how warm her skin is and just how tousled her hair can get when Gillian runs her hands through it again and again and again as they kiss and kiss and kiss. Gillian still isn’t entirely sure how they’ve ended up in bed together (actually, are they in her room or Caroline’s? Does that even matter? Did any inviting take place or did they just arrive at this room… this bed by some unspoken force?). Tying to make sense of the situation before her, Gillian comes to the (reluctant? unfortunate? exciting?) conclusion that it seems they must have done… something together judging by the freshly blooming marks on Caroline’s visible shoulder (oh and her chest too, it seems, now the woman in question is stirring and the sheet is falling away from her body and… oh. How has Gillian never considered just how spectacular Caroline is under all those power suits and designer shirts before?).

Caroline stirs some more and all Gillian can think of is an endless stream of curses and recriminations and panicked excuses. She’s already planning her strategy for when one of them has to do an awkward walk of shame through the corridors of this hotel (corridors which, she reminds herself with increasing panic, are filled with various extended family and friends who know the reputation she has). And this whole walk of shame (pride? Gillian can’t find anything inside her to feel shame at having slept with Caroline) without giving either her father or Celia a heart attack or further reason to disown them.

Gillian also realises with increasing trepidation that before any walks of shame/pride/whatever the heck emotion covers ‘I appear to have at least had a very intensive necking session with my new step-sister who is gorgeous and posh and professional and I think actually maybe I do fancy her (quite) a bit’, she’s going to have to have a very awkward conversation with the step-sister in question about how their current situation came about, which will likely lead to Caroline, the professional that she is, suggesting they never mention it again and only speak to one another at whole family events in future. And likely without any alcohol present to make things complicated. That’s not something Gillian wants; she’s come to think of Caroline as her closest… friend? Ally? Confidant? Whatever. She’s fond of Caroline and doesn’t want to have to let her go because of a stupid decision they (or, more likely, Gillian) made whilst drunk.

She’s pulled out of her thoughts by Caroline making a soft groan at the light coming through the window as she blinks open her eyes. She’s the most beautiful sight Gillian has ever woken up to. And, as anyone within a hundred miles of Yorkshire will say, Gillian’s had more than her fair share of sights to wake up to. Gillian looks down at Caroline, her heart beating wildly in her chest. Caroline looks up at her, her blue eyes shining.  
“Good morning,” she smiles softly and pulls Gillian down for a gentle morning kiss that’s sweeter than the pancakes this place serve on their breakfast buffet.

Well. That isn’t one of the possibilities Gillian thought she’d have to deal with. Perhaps for once in her life things aren’t as messed up as she thought. She really hopes so.

**Author's Note:**

> Will this be my only Caroline/Gillian fic? Who even knows? Are we cool, Vincent?


End file.
